Sucker control practices for dark tobacco are done primarily with contact and local systemic agrochemicals. These are applied as labor-intensive, manual stalk-rundown applications with droplines due to the tendency of dark tobacco to have crooked stalks at the time that sucker control applications need to be made. Management practices that keep dark tobacco straighter may make it possible for more efficient spray applications to be made for sucker control. In 2021, two field trials were conducted in Graves Co., KY, and one trial in Springfield, TN, to evaluate the effect of ridging and topping height on standability and sucker control. Tobacco was either transplanted flat as is traditional, or on a ridge in the first Graves Co. trial and in the Springfield trial. In the second Graves Co. trial, tobacco was transplanted flat in the entire trial, and then half of the plots were hilled to form a small ridge after transplanting. Within each ridging, hilling, or flat-transplanted block, topping heights (12 vs. 16 leaves in the first Graves Co. trial or 14 vs. 18 leaves in the second Graves Co. and Springfield trials) and sucker control applications (sprayed broadcast in the first Graves Co. trial or directed 3-nozzle per row in the second Graves Co. and Springfield trials, or droplined) were compared. In the first Graves Co. trial and the Springfield trial where ridging was used, benefits in field drainage were observed, but ridging did not increase standability of the tobacco compared to flat transplanting. In the second Graves Co. trial, hilling after flat transplanting increased standability over flat transplanting but did not increase sucker control or yield. In the ridging trials, yield was higher with flat transplanting and higher topping heights, and sucker control was greater with manual dropline application compared to either spray method.